As reported in Post # 345, the SNOMED CT Concept SCTID: 192439005 Neurasthenia (disorder) and its associated SCTID Concept terms were retired (Inactivated) from SNOMED CT’s International Edition and from national editions some years ago.

However, the Netherlands Edition retained the term neurasthenie under the SCTID: 52702003chronischevermoeidheidssyndroom (CVS) Synonyms list. The neurasthenie term was exclusive to the Netherlands Edition, was assigned to the SCTID: 52702003 CVS code, and designated as an “Acceptable” Synonym term for CVS in the Netherlands Dutch language reference set.

Request for removal of the neurasthenie term:

In October 2018, a Netherlands advocate approached Pim Volkert (Terminology Co-ordinator, Nictiz, and lead for the Netherlands SNOMED CT National Release Centre) with a request and rationale for consideration of removal of the neurasthenie term, for consistency with SNOMED CT International Edition and with the WHO’s ICD-10, which specifically excludes G93.3 from F48.0 Neurasthenia.

This request and accompanying rationale was considered and promptly accepted for implementation in the March 31, 2019 release of the Netherlands Edition.

This approved content change has now been incorporated into the March 2019 release:

Read Codes (a coded thesaurus of clinical terms for recording patient findings and procedures in health and social care IT systems across primary and secondary care, e.g. GP surgeries and reporting of pathology results).

The National Information Board (NIB) has specified that all primary care systems adopt SNOMED CT by the end of December 2016 and that SNOMED CT is to be used as the single terminology in all health care settings in England, with a projected adoption date for the entire health system of April 2020 [3].

This is an online browser and does not require any software to be downloaded. You will need to accept the license and then select for the UK “Local Extension” of SNOMED CT. Click on the “Search” tab to enter clinical terms.

The SNOMED CT International Edition and “Local Extensions” for a number of other countries, including the US, are also available via the browser. All editions release new updates twice a year, on a staggered schedule. The Release schedule for the UK Extension is April and October.

Read Codes system to be retired

The Read Codes system of clinical terms has been used in the NHS since 1985. As part of the adoption of SNOMED CT in primary care, Clinical Terms Version 3 (CTV3) is being deprecated.

Postviral fatigue syndrome was listed under Children to Chronic fatigue syndrome.

Read Codes (CTV3)

The twice yearly Read Codes releases (April and October) are available only to license holders but the codes can be viewed through this public resource (caveat: it is unclear how often this NCBO BioPortal ontology resource is updated with new releases for individual ontology systems):

Correspondence between Countess of Mar and UK Health and Social Care Information Centre

Forward-ME is an informal group for ME charities and voluntary organizations, chaired by the Countess of Mar, who also serves as Co-chair to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME).

Between November 2014 and June 2015, Lady Mar was in correspondence with Mr Leon Liburd, Senior Support Analyst Systems and Service Delivery, and Ms Elaine Wooler, Advanced Clinical Terminology Specialist, UK Health and Social Care Information Centre.

Changes to SNOMED CT

As a result of these exchanges, Lady Mar was advised that the relationship between the entry for 52702003Chronic fatigue syndrome and the Mental disorder parent had been retired. In future editions, Chronic fatigue syndrome would be listed under the single parent, 281867008 Multisystem disorder.

Additionally, 51771007 Postviral fatigue syndrome was being removed as a subtype of 52702003 Chronic fatigue syndrome (disorder) – though no rationale for this specific decision appears to be provided within the correspondence.

[So 51771007 Postviral fatigue syndrome would be no longer be listed as a sub class under Children to 52702003 Chronic fatigue syndrome but directly under two parents: 281867008 Multisystem disorder and 123948009 Post-viral disorder.]

These changes were effected in the July 2015 release for the International Edition (Release 20150731).

They were subsequently incorporated into the September 2015 US Extension (Release 20150901), the October 2015 UK Extension (Release 20151001) and the November 2015 Swedish Extension (Release 20151130). It is expected that other country Extensions will also reflect these changes in their forthcoming releases.

Within the correspondence, on 11 November 2014, Mr Leon Liburd had also advised Lady Mar:

“It is also noted that the corresponding representation in the UK’s Clinical Terms Version 3 terminology product Xa01F | Chronic fatigue syndrome is classified as both a Neurological disorder and a Mental health disorder. As such, any conclusions emerging from the SNOMED CT discussions would also be reflected in the CTV3 UK product.”

Clarification re CFS and CTV3

In November, I contacted the UK Health and Social Care Information Centre for clarification of how CFS and its various Synonyms are currently listed within CTV3.

“[Xa01F | Chronic fatigue syndrome was being moved] under a single supertype 281867008 | Multisystem disorder (disorder) as to reflect the SNOMED correction in CTV3″

and that this change should be reflected in the April 2016 CTV3 release.

As noted above, Clinical Terms Version 3 (CTV3) is being deprecated and the last release of CTV3 will be published in April 2018.

The ICD-11 Beta draft and proposed classification of the G93.3 legacy terms

In June, WHO’s Dr Robert Jakob had told me that if TAG Neurology’s proposals and rationales for the G93.3 legacy terms were not ready for public release in September, he projected their release by December, latest (see towards end of Post #324).

No proposals were released in September and none in December. Eight years into the revision process and stakeholders still don’t know how ICD Revision proposes to classify the ICD-10 G93.3 legacy terms for ICD-11.

On 28 December, I called again, via the ICD-11 Beta Comments mechanism, for these terms to be restored to the public version of the Beta drafting platform.

Neurasthenia and ICD-10-CM

The forthcoming U.S. specific ICD-10-CM inherits Neurasthenia in Chapter 5 Mental, Behavioral and Neurodevelopmental disorders (F01–F99). But here, it is coded under F48.8, owing to the different coding arrangement for the F48–F48.9 entities within ICD-10-CM.

This is how Neurasthenia is listed in the ICD-10-CM Tabular List release for FY 2015*

*Although the FY 2015 ICD-10-CM is now available for public download and viewing, the codes in ICD-10-CM are not currently valid for any purpose or use until implementation date is reached.

Neurasthenia and DSM

There was no discrete category for Neurasthenia within DSM-IV or DSM-IV-TR; nor within DSM-5, which published in May 2013.

Neurasthenia and ICD-11 and ICD-11-PHC

I reported in 2012 that for ICD-11 and ICD-11-PHC, the intention is not to retain Neurasthenia.

On Page 563 of this review paper, the authors state that a major highlight of the proposals of the ICD-11 Expert Working Group on Somatic Distress and Dissociative Disorders (the S3DWG sub working group) for the revision of the ICD-10 Somatoform disorders is that of subsuming all of the ICD-10 categories of F45.0–F45.9 and F48.0 under a single category with the proposed name of “Bodily distress disorder” (BDD).

ICD-10 PHC is a simplified version of the WHO’s ICD-10 chapter for mental and behavioural disorders for use in general practice and primary health care settings. This system has rough but not exact equivalence to selected of the mental disorders in the core ICD-10 classification.

The ICD-10 PHC includes and describes 26 disorders commonly encountered within primary care and and low resource settings, as opposed to circa 450 classified within Chapter V of ICD-10.

For ICD-11 PHC it is also the intention not to retain the category F48 Neurasthenia.

Note: If you compare the list of proposed disorders for the ICD-11 primary care version, as listed in the February 2011 International Psychiatry article (on Page 2, Box 2 The 28 disorders to be field tested for ICD11-PHC), with Table 2.5, above, you will note that some proposed disorder names, disorder groupings and disorder group headings have been revised since the article in International Psychiatry. Prof Goldberg has clarified that the iteration published in the sample book chapter was the more recent of the two, cf:

This list of disorder proposals and groupings may have undergone further revision since publication of 21st Century Global Mental Health. But no progress reports have emerged on behalf of the Primary Care Consultation Group (PCCG) setting out more recent proposals for their “Bodily stress syndrome” construct since the Lam et al (July 2012) paper [1].

The disorder term and construct that is entered into the ICD-11 Beta draft and defined with three severities, is the S3DWG group’s conceptually different, but similarly named construct, Bodily distress disorder (BDD).

The ICD-11 S3DWG group is advising ICD Revision in parallel with the PCCG on a potential replacement for the ICD-10 Somatoform disorders.

It is the case, however, that some professional and consumer stakeholders are unaware that are two groups advising on the revision of the Somatoform disorders, that there have been two sets of proposals presented, or how they differ in conceptualization.

Four revised definition texts were submitted to the Proposals List on behalf of Mental Health TAG for “Bodily distress disorder (BDD)” on January 9–11, which will be the subject of a future post.

Further evidence of intention for Neurasthenia and ICD-11

In mid 2012, Neurasthenia was removed from the ICD-11 Beta draft and subsumed (along with the F45.0–F45.9 category terms) by the S3DWG’s new single diagnostic category, “Bodily distress disorder.”

However, a couple of redundant listings for Neurasthenia as an exclusion term remained in the Beta draft as legacy text from ICD-10, under Exclusions to Fatigue (Symptoms and signs chapter) and Generalized anxiety disorder (Mental and behavioural disorders chapter).

The deletion of Neurasthenia as an exclusion term to Fatigue has now been attended to.

The following proposal has been submitted via the Proposals facility on behalf of Mental Health TAG to address the legacy listing that remains under Generalized anxiety disorder and this provides additional and contemporary evidence of intention not to retain Neurasthenia as a disorder term for ICD-11: